


don't come a-knockin'

by Rehearsal_Dweller



Series: Love at First Sight's for Suckers [2]
Category: Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: F/F, genderswap AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-17
Updated: 2020-04-17
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:28:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23700829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rehearsal_Dweller/pseuds/Rehearsal_Dweller
Summary: “Aw, Jackie, look at you finally meetin’ the parents. I’m so proud’a you.” Crutchie winks at Davey. “Don’t worry, doll, I’ll make sure she’s presentable.”
Relationships: Crutchie & Jack Kelly, David Jacobs & Sarah Jacobs, David Jacobs/Jack Kelly
Series: Love at First Sight's for Suckers [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1714258
Comments: 10
Kudos: 57





	don't come a-knockin'

**Author's Note:**

> This is the other promised sequel! This one follows "I Never Planned -" and is set a few months after the strike. If you missed that one, that's cool - the premise here is that Jack and Davey are girls and everything else is more or less the same!  
> I made the choice about a third of the way through this to change the narration from referring to Davey by her real name to using Davey, because it felt more right with where the story was going. So there may be a Dinah or two that I missed, and if there is I'm sorry!

“You should come for dinner sometime soon, Jackie,” Davey says. They’re sitting on the rooftop of the lodging house – or at least, Davey is sitting, and Jack has her head in Davey’s lap. Davey plays lazily with Jack’s hair. “The family’s dying to meet you.”

“Davey,” Jack replies, going a little tense under Davey’s fingers. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”

Davey presses a kiss to Jack’s forehead before she responds. “The way I see it, we have two options. One: we tell the truth about who you are. Les is sworn to secrecy about the details of our relationship. My mama can breathe again because she doesn’t think I’m running around with some strange boy every day.”

“Or?” Jack prompts when Davey doesn’t continue right away.

“Or two: we tell the truth about our relationship,” Davey says eventually. Her hand’s gentle movements through Jack’s hair pause. “Les is sworn to secrecy about your identity. Sarah can breathe again because I actually have prospects.” She laughs, and starts twisting her fingers in Jack’s hair again. “Given that Sarah, um, knows about my feelings for you, that option might be safer.”

Jack tips her head back, looking up at Davey more directly. “What? You went spillin’ to Sarah like a couple’a schoolgirls?”

“I _am_ a schoolgirl,” Davey points out. It’s not quite true; Davey hasn’t been to school in months. “But no, I didn’t just tell her for the sake of telling her. It was – you broke my heart, you know.”

“When?” Jack says, sitting up and twisting to face Davey. She knows, though. Davey knows she knows.

“At the rally.” They don’t talk about this; they never talk about this. But if there’s any chance Jack is going to meet the rest of the Jacobs family, if there’s any chance she’s going to meet _Sarah,_ who was ready to go fight a boy she’d never met for the sake of Davey’s heart, they need to put it to words. “I came home fucking _shattered_ , Jack. You know that, right?”

“Davey,” Jack says, leaning close. “Dinah, I’m sorry.”

“I know,” says Davey. “But Jack, I’ve never let anyone in the way I’ve let you in. I’ve never let myself get attached to someone like you. I’ve _certainly_ never let anybody lead me into the kind of trouble I follow you into. So when you betrayed us, I – it fucking broke me. And I came home and Sarah tried to pull me back together, and she just knew. I didn’t need to tell her, really.”

Jack’s hands come up to Davey’s face, thumbs gently tracing her cheekbones. “I didn’t want to hurt you.”

“I know, Jackie,” replies Davey. “But you did.” She leans into Jack’s touch. “I’m not trying to make you feel guilty. You’ve got to know what you’re getting into if you come around, and Sarah’s out for blood.”

Jack snorts. “Yeah, I’m real scared. You Jacobs kids ain’t exactly menacing.”

“You haven’t met Sarah yet,” Davey says. “Anyway my point is that Sarah knows that I lo- that I’m interested in you, so if we come in announcing you’re a girl, I might have some trouble. Not that I think Sar would have a problem with it, exactly, but it’s not a risk I’m inclined to take unless you’d prefer it. Because the alternative is presenting you as my sweetheart.”

“I am your sweetheart,” Jack says, darting forward for a quick kiss. “And if you think we can get away with it, I’d rather we do that second one. I play at bein’ a boy all the time, and I don’t think I can give up holdin’ your hand.”

Davey laughs. “Do you think Les would still idolize you if he knew you were such a sap?”

“Your sap.”

“Yeah, my sap.” Davey rests her forehead against Jack’s. “That mean I can tell Mama to expect you for dinner sometime soon?”

Jack lets out a breathy little laugh. “Yeah, alright. I’ll wear my best, uh – you know what, I really only have one set’a clothes right now. But I’ll get’em clean.”

“Don’t go out of your way for me,” says Davey, grinning. “Just mentally prepare to see what _Dinah the girl_ really looks like, okay? You’ve really only ever seen me as David.”

Jack pulls a little bit of Davey’s hair over her shoulder, so it hangs between them. “This ain’t Dinah the girl?”

“Nah, this is Davey,” Davey says. “And I’m really happiest like this, you know. I’m not hiding anything when I’m with you and the boys; I can dress like this, can act like this, can be a girl with a little more flexibility about what that actually means. You guys know me, and you love me anyway. It’s remarkably freeing.” She fiddles with the ends of her hair. “As Dinah, there’s more – more pressure. To be a girl the right way, to find someone and settle down. And I have to wear skirts! I’m so much clumsier in skirts, Jackie, it’s ridiculous.”

Jack laughs. “Yeah, alright, I get that. Ain’t surprised at all that you’s clumsy as hell, either. You’s all leg, honey. Betcha trip on the hems.”

“All the time,” says Davey. “No matter how I hold them! I have fallen down the stairs more times than I can count because I couldn’t get my skirt out of the way of my feet.”

“No wonder you don’t think much’a gettin’ into fights,” says Jack, and she’s got this soft little smile on. Leave it to Jack Kelly to find being able to take a hit worth swooning over. “You’re used to gettin’ hurt.”

“You’re funny,” Davey says.

“’Ey, Jack, you up there?” Crutchie’s voice calls, breaking the moment. He sounds distant, probably somewhere down the fire escape.

Jack gets up and moves toward the ladder. “Yeah, Crutch. Davey’s with me.”

“S’it alright if I come up?” Crutchie shouts.

“Yeah, you’re good,” Jack replies. “You need a hand?”

“Nah, I’m fine,” says Crutchie. Less than a minute later, his head pops over the side of the building. He tosses his crutch over before climbing the rest of the way up. “Heya, Davey.”

“Hi Crutchie,” says Davey. “Jack’s finally agreed to come to dinner.”

Crutchie’s blinding grin is worth the embarrassed squawk the statement draws from Jack. “Aw, Jackie, look at you finally meetin’ the parents. I’m so proud’a you.” He winks at Davey. “Don’t worry, doll, I’ll make sure she’s presentable.”

Davey laughs. “Thanks, Crutch. Our Jackie’s gonna need all the help she can get.”

“I am _right here_ ,” Jack says indignantly. Her face is bright red.

“Is this a today thing?” Crutchie asks, looking Jack up and down. “Or later in the week, and I can maybe get her into a bath between now and then?”

“What do you say, Jack?” says Davey, grinning. “You wanna face the wrath of Sarah Jacobs today or tomorrow?” To Crutchie, she adds, “Sarah’s gonna be worse than my father, I can tell you right now.”

“She goin’ as your beau, or as a gal?” says Crutchie. “Cause I ain’t seen Jack in a skirt in some years, but if ya wanna make a good impression as a gal we ought’a findja one. I reckon Smalls has one that’d fitcha.”

“No need,” Jack says quickly. Davey is suddenly very curious what Jack in girls’ clothes would even look like. “I’m gonna be meetin’ the family as her sweetheart.”

Davey stands and joins Jack closer to the edge of the roof, near Crutchie. She kisses Jack on the cheek. “Let’s call it tomorrow, shall we? That’ll give me a chance to let the family know you’re coming, and to prep Les. And time for you to pull yourself together.”

“Tomorrow,” Jack repeats. “I can do tomorrow.”

\--

Les crosses his arms. “I already fuckin’ cover for you, Davey, you don’t need’ta make a whole thing about it.”

“ _Les_ ,” Davey chides, more out of obligation than because she’s actually scandalized by the curse.

“I ain’t gonna sell you out just because Jack’s comin’ around for dinner,” Les says. “An’ frankly, I’m offended you think I wouldn’t.”

Davey snags Les’s sleeve and pulls him in for a hug. “You’re the best brother I could ever ask for, Leslie Jacobs.”

Les wriggles out of her grip. “I _know_. Don’t get mushy over it.”

“I brought it up so you’d be mentally prepared,” says Davey. “I want you to know that I never doubted that you’d protect us, okay? And don’t think for a minute that that doesn’t mean the world to me.”

“We call Jack a boy at home anyway,” Les says. He wrinkles his nose. “None’a my business what romancey stuff you two get up to, but I know it ain’t easy for ya.”

“Thank you, Les.”

He punches her shoulder playfully, like the other newsies do when they’re goofing around. “Don’t mention it, Davey.”

Les is the only member of Davey’s family who _calls_ her Davey. This is completely logical – Davey is what the newsies call her, because the name she uses while working as a boy is David and the newsies are compulsive nicknamers – but it occasionally strikes her as a reminder that Les is kind of the only member of the family who actually knows Davey nowadays.

She tries not to think about it too much.

She doesn’t really succeed at that, though. Davey’s always been a bit of an overthinker. As soon as the thought hits her that day, it’s all she can think of as they go through their normal evening routine.

 _Mama would never call me Davey_ , she thinks as she helps set the table.

 _Papa would never call me Davey_ , she thinks as she counts out their earnings for the day.

 _Sarah would never call me Davey_ , she thinks as she reads a book curled on the floor at her sister’s feet.

It’s hard to articulate why that’s the thing she’s caught on. Maybe it’s because, like she told Jack earlier, when she’s Davey she’s got the freedom to be something she never gets to be as Dinah. Maybe it’s just because she’s opened up more to those boys than anyone else she’d ever known in her entire life, and the name is just a signifier.

“Mama, “ Davey says, not too long before bed, “I finally convinced our friend Jack to come for dinner, is tomorrow alright?”

“Of course, Dinah!” replies Mama, smiling brightly. Davey reigns in the sudden urge to flinch at the sound of her own name. “I can’t wait to finally meet this famous Jack Kelly of yours. We can finally find out if all your stories about him are true.”

Davey smiles back. “No guarantees about Les’s, but mine are all true.” She tangles her fingers in her hair for a moment before continuing. “He’s –“ she loses her nerve. “He’s excited to meet all of you.”

“Good,” says Mama. “It sounds like that boy could use some family, and with how well he’s been taking care of you and Les he’s more than welcome with ours.”

“Thanks, Mama,” Davey says.

Sarah is waiting for her in their bedroom. “So, _Jack’s_ coming.”

“Yes,” Davey replies, starting to change into her nightgown.

“The same Jack who you’ve confessed to being completely gone over?” Sarah presses. “The only man I’ve ever heard you express an interest in in your entire seventeen years of life? Jack Kelly, who broke your heart last summer?”

“ _Yes_ , Sarah,” Davey replies, a little harsher than she means to. “My _best friend_ Jack Kelly is coming over for dinner.”

Sarah grabs Davey’s hands and pulls her onto the bed so they’re both sitting on their knees facing each other. “Dinah. _Dinah_. Does he even know you’re a girl?”

“He’s known for months!” She squeezes Sarah’s hands. “Do you really think I would invite Jack here if he didn’t know the truth?”

“I just – I worry about you, Di. I feel like you never tell me anything anymore. Don’t you trust me?”

“Of course I trust you.” She makes a decision, then. Davey sighs, looking into her sister’s eyes. “I’m not the same person I was when all this started, Sarah.”

“What do you mean?” Sarah asks.

“I’m – I’m braver, and I’m bolder, and I led a fucking _strike_ last year,” Davey says. “I got beat to hell by the police and I got my heart broken. I’m not the same person I was.”

Sarah frowns. “What’s this got to do with Jack?”

“What doesn’t it have to do with Jack?” Davey laughs, but it’s a high, tense laugh that only makes the furrow in Sarah’s brow deepen. “Fuck, Sar, I’m sorry. I’m trying to, uh, to let you back in.”

“Those boys have been some influence on your vocabulary,” Sarah says, smiling weakly.

“Among other things,” says Davey. “Look, Jack and I are seeing each other. He’s my sweetheart. We’ve been together since just after the strike.”

“That’s an awful long time not to have mentioned it,” Sarah says, her voice almost inaudible.

“Yeah. Sorry,” Davey says, twisting her curls around her fingers. “I didn’t mean to keep it a secret, it just… happened.”

“But Les knew.” Sarah’s fingers tighten around Davey’s. “Didn’t he?”

Davey laughs again. “Yeah, Les knew. Les sells with us, and he’s young but he’s not stupid. Of course he knew.”

“When did you start telling Les things you don’t tell me, Dinah?” says Sarah, shaking her head.

“It’s not a slight against you, Sarah,” says Davey. She chews on the inside of her lip for a moment before continuing. “Les is just _around_. And he’s a part of all that.” She runs her fingers through her hair.

“Dinah –“

“Davey.”

“What?”

“I don’t – I don’t really think of myself as Dinah anymore,” Davey admits. She shrugs. “I haven’t in a long time.” She gives Sarah a significant look, trying to impress how important this is to her. “All the people who know me best now call me Davey.”

Sarah lets out a slow breath. “Okay. Is there anything else I should know before your sweetheart comes to visit tomorrow, Davey?”

Davey hovers for a moment on the edge of the most important detail – before losing her nerve and shaking her head. “No. _Thank you_ , Sarah.”

“Thanks for telling me,” Sarah replies. She opens her arms and Davey falls into the hug.

It feels like something heavy she’s been carrying around with her all day has been lifted off her shoulders. She breathes in the warm, familiar smell of her sister and the laundry soap their mother uses, and for just a moment Davey can relax.

\--

True to his word, Crutchie makes sure Jack is scrubbed raw and borrows a clean shirt from someone so that by the time she’s ready to go she looks almost presentable.

“You need a haircut, girlie,” Crutchie says, fixing her bangs so they don’t fall into her eyes. “Ain’t gonna give you one now, but’cha need it.”

“Does it look _bad_?” Jack replies, a little self-conscious.

“Nah,” says Crutchie, waving a hand dismissively. “You look dashing. But in a couple days you’re just gonna look messy.”

“Gotcha,” says Jack.

She takes a step back, turning slowly so Crutchie can get a good look at her, her arms out as if to say _what do you think_?

“You’re gonna knock ‘em dead, doll,” Crutchie says. “Picture _you_ , goin’ to meet a gal’s parents!”

“I’m tryin’ not to chicken outta goin’ to meet her parents,” says Jack, trying to resist the urge to fidget with her hair or clothes. Crutchie’s done such a good job making her look respectable.

Crutchie smiles kindly, taking her hands in his own. “They’re going to love you, Jack.”

“If you say so,” Jack replies, closing her eyes. “Before I go, can I – can you –“

“One more hug for luck,” says Crutchie, nodding. He pulls her in close and squeezes her tight. “You and Davey’s good together, her parents’d hav’ta be blind not to see it.”

Jack kisses him on the cheek as she pulls away. “Thanks, Crutch.”

Crutchie nods. “Go get’cha girl. I’ll wait up for ya.”

Jack doesn’t usually do _families_. She’s got her own patchwork family, yeah, but that’s not the same as walking into an apartment with a mother and a father and their children and trying to pretend she’s not sticking out like a sore thumb. But Davey’s family is important to her, and Jack really can’t say no to Davey.

So she’s walking to the Jacobs’s building, trying not to talk herself out of this. She’s walked this path many times, because she’s walked the Jacobs siblings home more times than she can count, but she’s never made the last stretch from the front stoop to their apartment door.

She knocks before she can stop herself. The door opens almost immediately, revealing Les, who smiles brightly at her.

“Heya, Jack,” he says. “C’mon in, Mama’s just finishin’ dinner. _Dinah’s_ in her room, ‘cause she can’t decide what to wear, on account’a you’ve never seen her look like a girl.” He rolls his eyes. “ _I_ figure if you like ‘er in the stuff she usually wears, she can wear anything and you’ll still think she’s pretty.”

Jack laughs. “I can’t say you’re wrong.”

Les shoots her a funny look over his shoulder when she speaks, and Jack realizes that he really hasn’t heard her _try_ to read as a boy before. Among the newsies and while they’re working, she usually just lets people take her how they will. She doesn’t really care if people figure out she’s a girl, but they usually don’t. Between her natural speaking voice (a slightly scratchy mezzo-soprano) and her stature, she knows most people take her for thirteen or fourteen, so on the rare occasions when she wants to pass for a boy closer to her own age she usually pitches her voice down a little and carries herself a little differently. She’s still short for a nearly eighteen-year-old boy, but she can pull it off if she tries.

Les bangs on a door off the main room. “Di _nah_ , Jack’s here!”

Through the door, Jack hears a _thunk_ and then a very quiet, “ _shit!”_ and it takes everything she has not to laugh. A moment later, the door opens to reveal not Davey, but a girl who’s unmistakably Les and Davey’s sister, Sarah.

“Di’s just going to be a moment,” she says. She slips out the door, letting it fall shut behind her. “I’m Sarah, it’s nice to finally put a face to the name.”

“Likewise,” says Jack. She shakes Sarah’s outstretched hand.

“Come on, Jack, you gotta meet Mama and Papa,” says Les, grabbing Jack’s wrist and pulling her further into the apartment. Sarah laughs.

Mrs Jacobs is standing by the stove, and Mr Jacobs is sitting at the dinner table. Jack finds herself steered by Les and Sarah into a seat at the table.

“Mama, Papa, meet Jack,” Les says, an arm now thrown around Jack’s shoulders. “ _Finally_.”

“Mr Jacobs, Mrs Jacobs,” says Jack, smiling and trying to look calm, “it’s very nice to meet you.”

“Mayer and Esther, please,” Mr Jacobs – Mayer – says, waving a hand while Esther nods. “With the care you’ve been taking of our children all this time, you’re practically family already. There’s no need to be formal.”

“Thank you, Mr – Mayer,” says Jack. “It’s not as if it’s been any trouble to spend time with your kids, though. They’re natural newsies, ‘ey Lessy?” She ruffles Les’s hair. “And I’d never have been able to pull the strike off last summer without Dinah. She’s really something, that daughter’a yours.”

“Jack likes to say Les improves his numbers,” Davey’s voice says from behind Jack. “Little kids get a lot of sympathy. I can’t say I’m any help, though.”

Jack’s on her feet again without really thinking, turning to face Davey. Her breath catches when she sees her.

Davey’s usually messy cloud of dark brown curls has been tamed, pinned back away from her face in a style similar to how Katherine usually wears her hair. The one stubborn curl that always falls into Davey’s eyes is still there, although even that one seems a little more intentional. She’s wearing a cream colored shirtwaist and an olive green skirt, neither of which are anything fancy beyond the novelty of being so completely different to what Jack’s used to seeing her in. She looks incredibly self-conscious, her hands clasped together in front of her tightly.

“Da- Dinah,” Jack says, and she knows it’s a little choked but she doesn’t really care. “Hi.”

Davey smiles, a little weakly. “Hi, Jack. I saw you two hours ago.”

“Yeah, but not –“ _Don’t swear, don’t swear, don’t swear – “_ god, Di. You weren’t kiddin’ when you said you look different like this.”

She takes a slightly stumbling step toward Davey, stopping just short of an arm’s length away. “You look good.”

Davey blushes, a bright red creeping over her cheeks. “Jack, it’s still just me.”

“Just nothin’, darlin’,” says Jack. “You’re always beautiful, this is just new.”

“Dinner’s ready,” Esther says, breaking the odd little bubble that Jack and Davey had accidentally found themselves in.

“Right, dinner!” Davey pushes past Jack, still very red. She snags Jack’s arm as she goes by, pulling her back to the table.

Dinner passes in a blur. The conversation comes surprisingly easily, although Jack is enjoying the opportunity to watch Davey with her family as much as the opportunity to get to know the family herself. It’s time for her to go before she knows it, but there’s one more thing Jack knows she needs to do.

Mayer seems to be expecting it when she asks to speak with him alone.

“I have a feeling I know what you want to ask me, son,” says Mayer.

“You do?” Jack replies.

“I have eyes, Jack,” Mayer says, raising an eyebrow. “You want my permission to court my daughter.”

“That transparent, am I?” says Jack, with a shaky laugh. “She’s really – I know I’m probably not what you want for her, Mayer. A Catholic street kid ain’t exactly top of _anybody’s_ list of desirable matches, ‘specially not for a girl as bright as Dinah.” She fidgets with her vest, tugging on the hem and picking at a loose thread. “But I love her, sir. I really, really do. And I reckon she loves me, too.”

For what feels like a very, very long time, Mayer doesn’t say anything. Just when Jack’s almost sure he’s going to throw her out of the house and ban Dinah from ever selling with her again, he says, “You have my permission. I can’t deny that you’re not who I would’ve chosen for her, but I trust Dinah’s own judgment. It’s clear she adores you, so all I ask is that you take care of her. Can you do that?”

“I can,” Jack says, and she feels like she can breathe again. “I – wow. Thank you, Mayer.”

Mayer nods. “Go ahead and tell her, I’m sure she’s waiting for you.”

Sure enough, when Jack taps on Sarah and Davey’s bedroom door, Davey opens it immediately, and flings herself into Jack’s arms at her shaky nod. They don’t have much time now, though, so before long Jack pulls away from her. She skims a hand along Davey’s cheek, grinning. “I love you, Davey.”

“I love you, Jackie.”

The walk home has Jack feeling lighter than air. True to his word, Crutchie is waiting up for her, stitching up a hole in her usual shirt when she arrives.

“So, how did it go?” he asks, but he’s grinning and she knows he can tell it went well.

“ _You_ are looking at the guy who just got official permission to court Dinah Jacobs,” says Jack, flopping down next to Crutchie. “Ain’t quite perfect, an’ lord knows I’d rather we could be open about the whole thing, but – but for the world we’re livin’ in, I reckon this is the best I’m gonna get. And as long as I got Davey, I can take a little bit’a sneakin’.” She lays down, her head on Crutchie’s knee. “Davey’s worth it.”

Crutchie grins, ruffling her hair. “You got a good thing, Jackie-girl. Hold on to it tight.”

“Oh, I plan to.”


End file.
